Arts & Humanities Reviews, May 15, 2012

Carr, Cynthia. Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz. Bloomsbury, dist. by Macmillan. Jul. 2012. c.640p. photogs. bibliog. ISBN 9781596915336. $35. FINE ARTS

Former Village Voice columnist Carr (Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town, and the Hidden History of White America) weaves an intense if sometimes over-detailed portrait of a complex artist in a complex time. Carr knew David Wojnarowicz (1954‚ 92), the controversial creator of the art film A Fire in My Belly, and she bears him witness in this politically charged look at his life. She writes of his painful life and prolific career as a poet, artist, and activist before he died from AIDS at age 37, and, at the same time, she documents the rise and fall of the East Village arts scene in the 1980s. Using her skills as a reporter, Carr has pieced together this moving though unsentimental tribute from interviews with friends, candid conversations with Wojnarowicz before his death, and his own deep and provocative writings. She also discusses the politics then and now that dominate the so-called culture wars. VERDICT An up-close look at the devastation of AIDS, this first full-length biography explains Wojnarowicz’s powerful iconography in the context of a (literally) dying art scene. Recommended for art and queer studies scholars. [See Prepub Alert, 1/21/12.]‚ Marianne Laino Sade, Maryland Inst. Coll. of Art Lib., Baltimore

French art critic and novelist Bonnet (Un jeune homme rebelle) published these ruminations, inspired by his book-gathering habits, in France in 2008. They are now translated by Reynolds (Marriage and Revolution: Monsieur and Madame Roland) and introduced by novelist James Salter (A Sport and a Pastime). In nine pieces plus a preface, Bonnet recalls particular biblio-moments in his life, or glances at a book on his shelves (he believes he now possesses about 40,000 volumes), then takes readers with him as he connects anecdote to anecdote, book to book, insight to insight. He is not a collector in the recent fashion of buying, say, a mint-condition Pynchon and not reading it for fear of lowering its value. He buys to support his interests and to read. He is compelled by the varied human bonds with books, the quandaries that the urge to buy them brings, the ways books can connect us, the criteria (or lack thereof) by which we arrange them on our shelves, and the range of libraries he has encountered, both fictional and real, extant and departed. VERDICT The book’s ideal readers will be those who share Bonnet’s love of being surrounded by the evidence of their minds’ journeys, insatiable readers who love to linger over large and quirky accumulations of the printed word. For those readers, highly recommended.‚ Margaret Heilbrun, Library Journal

Chinese American poet/critic Yau, whose many titles include National Poetry Series winner Corpse and Mirror, here shows that poetry can tackle sociological issues while making language fresh. The poet assumes that with imagination giving daily experience meaning and beauty, a single chronicled reality can bring forth others, and his poems vividly record this act of becoming: I am interested in what is, and what is not/ I try to find a way from one to another/ I don’t like any, least of all mine. The often short, fragmented lines and crafty distribution of space give the poems a dynamic feel; some poems blend surrealism and parody so that past and present narrate each other. A dominant theme is identity, particularly exiled or marginalized identity, which Yau explores through the clever deployment of Asian symbols, as in the series poem Genghis Chan: Privet Eye. VERDICT Yau uses his heritage beautifully to enrich and expand his poetic adventure. Recommended for all poetry readers.‚ Sadiq Alkoriji, South Regional Lib., Broward Cty., FL

In this companion to a major exhibition of illuminated manuscripts held by the British Library, McKendrick (head, Western manuscripts, British Lib.; In a Monastery Library ), John Lowden (art history, Courtauld Inst. of Art, Univ. of London;The Jaharis Gospel Lectionary), and Kathleen Doyle (curator, illuminated manuscripts, British Lib.; coauthor, with McKendrick, Bible Manuscripts ) explore questions of when, where, and why illuminated manuscripts were obtained by the royalty of England. The basis of the British Library’s collection comes from the old Royal Library, bequeathed to the people of England by George II in 1757. Through analyses of book production compared to book use, books commemorating military and religious conquests, books’ representation of the relationship between England and the European continent, and the practicalities of acquiring and displaying a royal manuscript collection, readers will come to understand what these nationally held manuscripts mean to the country itself. VERDICT These crackerjack researchers supply a thorough history of the collection alongside many excellent reproductions of illuminated manuscripts‚ a can’t-miss recipe for a solid catalog.‚ Nadine Dalton Speidel, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH

What better way to experience the oft-predicted end-times of 2012 than by reading about how others illustrated the Book of Revelation in ages past. Medieval manuscript scholar Morgan (art history, Corpus Christi Coll., Univ. of Cambridge; The Douce Apocalypse ) here explores the Getty Apocalypse manuscript. He studies the artistic dissimilarities from other English Apocalypses, its stylistic nuances, and its relationship to other manuscripts in the Westminster Group to help readers better understand this work of art in its historic and modern contexts. The book includes a brilliant complete reproduction of the manuscript; the reproduction process emphasizes the gold leaf very well. The book also provides a full translation of the text. Especially notable is the inclusion of Saint John of Patmos, named author of the Book of Revelation, in most of the manuscript illuminations. In the text and illuminations, John is depicted as reacting to the events‚ unusual for its time. VERDICT A valuable resource for scholars, since not all can travel to see the manuscript in person. ‚ Nadine Dalton Speidel, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH